Docuseal on Google Cloud Run

DocuSeal is an open-source document-signing platform — a self-hosted DocuSign alternative for creating, filling, and signing PDF documents with a visual form builder, reusable templates, and audit trails. This module deploys DocuSeal on Cloud Run v2 on top of the App_CloudRun foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services DocuSeal uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics common to every Cloud Run application — service identity, ingress and load balancing, scaling and concurrency, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_CloudRun foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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1. Overview

DocuSeal runs as a single Ruby on Rails (Puma) container on Cloud Run v2. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	Cloud Run v2	Rails/Puma service on port 3000, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB by default
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — DocuSeal does not support MySQL or other engines
Persistent documents	Filestore / NFS	enable_nfs = true; uploaded documents live at /data/docuseal
Object storage	Cloud Storage	One bucket provisioned automatically (not the default document store)
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated SECRET_KEY_BASE; database password
Ingress	Cloud Run URL / Cloud Load Balancing	Default run.app URL; optional external HTTPS load balancer + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• PostgreSQL 15 is mandatory. The database engine is fixed by the shared application layer; selecting any other engine breaks startup.
• DocuSeal connects over private-IP TCP, not the Cloud SQL socket. Ruby's URI parser cannot parse the Cloud SQL Unix-socket DSN, so enable_cloudsql_volume defaults to false and the entrypoint composes a DATABASE_URL against the instance private IP with sslmode=require.
• SECRET_KEY_BASE is generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager. It must never be rotated after first boot — doing so invalidates all signed session cookies, logging every user out.
• Uploaded documents live on NFS, not in the container. enable_nfs = true mounts the shared NFS volume at /data/docuseal; without it, every uploaded document is lost on the next revision or cold start.
• One instance is kept warm by default (min_instance_count = 1, cpu_always_allocated = true). DocuSeal is a request/response app whose documents live on durable NFS, so it can safely scale to zero — set min_instance_count = 0 to trade first-request latency for cost.
• No Redis. DocuSeal uses a PostgreSQL-backed queue/cache, so no Redis is required or wired (enable_redis = false).
• Public ingress by default. ingress_settings = "all" so the signing UI and any signer/API links are reachable. Enabling IAP puts a Google-sign-in gate in front of those links.
• Migrations run on boot. DocuSeal applies its own ActiveRecord migrations on every start; the only init job creates the PostgreSQL role and database.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume PROJECT and REGION are set. Service and resource names are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. Cloud Run — the DocuSeal service

DocuSeal runs as a Cloud Run v2 service that autoscales by request load between the minimum and maximum instance counts. Each deployment creates an immutable revision; traffic can be split across revisions for safe rollouts.

• Console: Cloud Run → select the service for revisions, traffic, logs, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" \
    --filter="metadata.name~docuseal"
  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run revisions list --service <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, execution environment, and traffic splitting.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15

DocuSeal stores all application data (templates, submissions, submitters, users, audit trail) in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. Because Ruby cannot parse the Cloud SQL socket DSN, the service connects over the instance private IP with sslmode=require (the DB_IP the foundation injects), reachable via VPC egress; no public IP is exposed. On first deploy an initialization Job creates the application database and role.

• Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=docuseal --database=docuseal --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database, user, and password secret are in the Outputs. See App_CloudRun for the connection model, backups, and password rotation.

C. Filestore / NFS — persistent documents

DocuSeal writes uploaded documents and attachments to the local filesystem at /data/docuseal. enable_nfs = true mounts the shared NFS (Filestore-class) volume there so documents survive revisions and cold starts.

• Console: Filestore → Instances (or Compute Engine for the self-managed NFS VM, depending on the platform configuration).
• CLI:

  # Confirm the NFS mount and WORKDIR on the running revision:
  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" \
    --format='yaml(spec.template.spec.volumes, spec.template.spec.containers[0].volumeMounts)'

See App_CloudRun for how the shared NFS server is discovered and mounted.

D. Cloud Storage

One Cloud Storage bucket (name suffix storage) is provisioned automatically and the workload service account is granted access. DocuSeal's document store defaults to the NFS volume above, so this bucket is available for auxiliary use rather than the primary document store.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
• CLI:

  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage ls gs://<bucket-name>/          # bucket name is in the Outputs

See App_CloudRun for GCS Fuse and CMEK options.

E. Secret Manager

One cryptographic secret is generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager: SECRET_KEY_BASE (used by Rails to sign session cookies and other signed values). The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

  gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~docuseal"
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun for injection and rotation details.

F. Networking & ingress

The service is reachable at its run.app URL by default, which allows the public access needed for signer links and the signing UI. An external HTTPS load balancer with a custom domain, Cloud CDN, and Cloud Armor can be layered on; ingress settings and VPC egress control connectivity.

• Console: Cloud Run (service URL); Network services → Load balancing.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" --format='value(status.url)'
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Container logs (Rails logs to stdout) flow to Cloud Logging; Cloud Run and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring, with optional uptime checks and alert policies.

• Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services logs read <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --limit 50

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3. Docuseal Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. An initialization Job runs db-init.sh using postgres:15-alpine. It idempotently creates the docuseal role and database, grants full privileges, and reassigns ownership of the public schema to the app role (PostgreSQL 15 no longer grants CREATE on public by default). The job is safe to re-run.
• Migrations on start. DocuSeal runs its own ActiveRecord migrations automatically on every boot as the application role, so upgrading the application version applies schema changes without a separate migration step.
• SECRET_KEY_BASE is immutable after first boot. It is generated once and written to Secret Manager. Rotating it invalidates all signed session cookies, forcing every user to log in again. Only rotate during a planned maintenance window.
• Health path. Startup, liveness, and readiness probes target /up — Rails' built-in health endpoint, which returns an unauthenticated 200 once the app is up. The default startup probe allows a 60-second initial delay plus a wide retry window for first-boot migrations.
• First-run setup. DocuSeal has no default credentials. On first access, open the service URL and complete the setup screen to create the initial administrator account (email + password) before inviting other users or creating templates.
• Persistent documents. Uploaded documents live at /data/docuseal on the NFS volume. Verify the injected connection and work directory on the running revision:

  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" --project "$PROJECT" \
    --format='value(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)'

• Inspect job execution:

  gcloud run jobs list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run jobs executions list --job <job-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

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4. Configuration Variables

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for DocuSeal are listed; every other input is inherited from App_CloudRun with its standard behaviour.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

Variable	Default	Description
project_id	(required)	Target Google Cloud project.
region	us-central1	Region for the service and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment

Variable	Default	Description
tenant_deployment_id	demo	Short suffix that makes resource names unique per environment.
support_users	[]	Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts.
resource_labels	{}	Labels applied to all resources.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	docuseal	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_version	latest	DocuSeal image tag (FROM docuseal/docuseal:<tag>); pin to a specific release in production.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
cpu_limit	2000m	CPU per instance (2 vCPU).
memory_limit	4Gi	Memory per instance.
min_instance_count	1	Instances kept warm. DocuSeal tolerates 0 (scale-to-zero) since documents live on NFS.
max_instance_count	5	Maximum instances.
container_port	3000	Puma listens on 3000. Do not change.
container_resources	null	Structured CPU/memory override; when set, overrides cpu_limit/memory_limit.
execution_environment	gen2	Gen2 required for NFS mounts (and imposes a 512 MiB memory floor).
timeout_seconds	300	Maximum request duration (0–3600 seconds).
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror the DocuSeal image into Artifact Registry.
container_image_source	custom	Thin wrapper built from docuseal/docuseal.

Group 6 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra non-secret settings merged into the container. Core values (RAILS_LOG_TO_STDOUT, WORKDIR) are set automatically.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name. SECRET_KEY_BASE is injected automatically.
secret_propagation_delay	30	Seconds to wait after secret creation before proceeding.

Group 10 — Storage & Filesystem

Variable	Default	Description
enable_nfs	true	Mount the shared NFS volume at /data/docuseal for persistent documents. Keep on or uploads are lost on redeploy.
nfs_mount_path	/data/docuseal	Mount path — must match DocuSeal's WORKDIR.
create_cloud_storage	true	Create the declared GCS bucket(s).
gcs_volumes	[]	Optional GCS Fuse volume mounts (requires gen2).

Group 12 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
db_name	docuseal	PostgreSQL database name. Immutable after first deploy.
db_user	docuseal	Application database user. Password auto-generated in Secret Manager.
enable_cloudsql_volume	false	Keep false — Ruby cannot parse the Cloud SQL socket DSN; DocuSeal uses private-IP TCP with sslmode=require.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).

Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in db-init job (creates role + database).

Group 14 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	HTTP /up, 60s delay	Startup probe. Allow time for first-boot migrations.
liveness_probe	HTTP /up, 60s delay	Liveness probe against the Rails health endpoint.
uptime_check_config	disabled, path /	Cloud Monitoring uptime check (public endpoints only); set enabled = true to provision it.

Group 21 — Redis Cache & Queue

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	false	DocuSeal uses a PostgreSQL-backed queue/cache; leave off.

All other inputs follow standard App_CloudRun behaviour.

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5. Outputs

Returned on a successful deployment — the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Cloud Run service name.
service_url	Default run.app URL of the service.
service_location	Region the service runs in.
stage_services	Stage-specific service details (Cloud Deploy).
load_balancer_ip / load_balancer_url	External HTTPS load balancer IP / URL (when enabled).
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name / database_user	Application database name / user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels / uptime_check_names	Monitoring status, channels, uptime checks.
initialization_jobs	Names of the setup jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id	Registry and build trigger.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode	VPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled	Audit logging and CMEK status.

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6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Inherited plan-time validation. This module passes its configuration through the App_CloudRun foundation engine, which validates values and combinations at plan time — a read replica without its primary, IAP with no authorized identities, a gen1 runtime with NFS/GCS mounts, a database_type that does not match an enabled extension, an out-of-range backup_retention_days. Invalid configuration fails the plan with a clear, named error before any resource is created, so most mistakes below are caught up front rather than at apply or runtime.

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
SECRET_KEY_BASE (auto-generated)	Never rotate after first boot	Critical	Rotating invalidates all signed session cookies — every user is logged out.
enable_nfs	true	Critical	Disabling it stores documents on the ephemeral container disk; every uploaded document is lost on the next revision or cold start.
nfs_mount_path	/data/docuseal	Critical	Must match DocuSeal's WORKDIR; a mismatched path means documents write to non-persistent storage.
db_name / db_user	Set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys all data.
enable_cloudsql_volume	false	High	Ruby cannot parse the Cloud SQL socket DSN; enabling the socket sidecar breaks the DATABASE_URL and startup fails.
container_port	3000	High	Puma listens on 3000; a mismatched port makes probes hit a dead port and the revision never becomes Ready.
execution_environment	gen2	High	Gen1 cannot mount NFS; the app loses persistent document storage.
enable_iap	only for internal use	High	IAP gates every request behind Google sign-in, blocking public signer links.
memory_limit	4Gi	Medium	PDF rendering/signing is memory-hungry; shrinking too far risks OOM under load.
min_instance_count	1 (or 0 for cost)	Medium	Scale-to-zero adds a cold-start delay to the first request after idle; documents on NFS are safe either way.
application_version	Pin in production	Medium	latest can pull a new major on redeploy, applying migrations you did not review.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — service identity, scaling and concurrency, ingress and load balancing, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_CloudRun. DocuSeal-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in Docuseal_Common.